The Cao Family held decisive weight in the Eternal Main Star — one stomp of their foot and ten directions would tremble. They were a transcendent, major power. They had come with a fleet of mother warships, yet a single person with a single mecha had sent them fleeing with their tails between their legs.
Celestial Feather Star was awash in clamor. No matter how people tried to frame it, it seemed dreamlike — too unreal.
“Reportedly he’s an ascetic cultivator from the depths of the cosmic starry sky. To think he’d be this powerful. Could he be another one with a celestial physique like Wan Qing?”
“The Cao Family absolutely won’t let this go. They’ve been humiliated on Celestial Feather Star. Most likely they’ll send a great army to launch a campaign of retribution!”
People marveled, one after another finding the whole affair incomprehensible.
This news also reached Heaven’s Court, leaving a group of key figures dumbfounded, driving home anew just how boundless Ye Fan’s potential was and how terrifying his battle talent was.
Brahma Xian and some of the clan members could not help but frown. The Undying Golden Body had slipped away from them, and on Celestial Feather Star his reputation was soaring — most likely drawing the attention of many major powers. Even if the Cao Family went to suppress and kill him, they would likely come away empty-handed, for there was a chance other colossal powers might extend an olive branch.
“I think it may be necessary to make some amends…” Brahma Zhou murmured to himself, glancing at his clan members.
A true Undying Golden Body — not several generations diluted, but a first generation — just how terrifying was the potential it possessed? No one could predict it.
The Eternal Main Star was a vast and ancient star — immense in territory, rich in resources, with a large population. Since ancient times, it had produced countless individuals of astonishing genius, and even ancient divine beings.
The Cao Family dominated one side, with few rivals in the eastern region. Now some of their senior figures were in a towering rage. Before that sky-piercing enormous palace, many people were too frightened to speak a word.
This was an ancient palace that had stood for tens of thousands of years, hovering and drifting above the heavens — a hallmark of the Cao Family, surrounded and guarded on all sides by mother warships, divine islands, and enormous mountains, with the palace itself at the center.
Smack!
An old man in the hall slammed a diamond stone table to pieces with his palm, roaring: “Useless trash! You’ve dragged the Cao Family’s honor through the mud. A fleet of mother warships beaten back in defeat by a single Dao-severing cultivator? What good are you?!”
The people below trembled with fear, yet not a single one dared speak. The outcome truly was shameful — there was nothing to say.
“Think of a way to wash away your disgrace. Don’t let the Cao Family become a laughingstock. Otherwise I will have every last one of you thrown to the dragons as feed!” another great figure bellowed.
That day, a gale swept out from the Cao Family. A group of people departed with one intent — to deal with Ye Fan — every kind of measure deployed.
Celestial Feather Star soon received the news. The Cao Family had flown into a rage, deciding to launch a massive incursion onto Celestial Feather Star to make trouble for Ye Fan — the news spread across the entire planet, and the clouds of war gathered thick.
For these past few days, Ye Fan had kept a low profile. Despite shaking all of Celestial Feather Star with one battle, he dared not show off — he had gone into hiding, visiting ruins across the land and searching for what he needed.
This was an ancient ruin known as the Evergreen Pond. A pool constructed from block after block of green stone, with several stone pavilions nearby, bearing the mottled marks of time.
Within the pond, clusters of lotus flowers grew, like carved jade, growing in abundance, never withering for over twenty thousand years.
Legend had it that Wan Qing had once bathed here. In a single night, divine lotuses had grown and bloomed. Across all those long ages since, this pond had never dried up, its spiritual nature intact still.
“The Green Emperor must have already been extraordinary in that age, having reached a realm that defies all imagination,” Ye Fan murmured. He was now certain — Wan Qing was the Green Emperor.
Whether at Heaven’s Court of the Brahma Clan or on Celestial Feather Star, he had been diligently searching for traces left by his predecessors and acquaintances. He believed this might be one stop along the ancient starry path — otherwise why would the Green Emperor have appeared here?
Over all this time, he had carefully searched and discreetly made inquiries, gathering some unusual information: throughout history, waves after waves of ascetic cultivators had appeared, as though passing through this domain.
I want to learn more — perhaps I should go to the Eternal Main Star, Ye Fan thought. He believed there would be more “traces” there.
Splash!
He dove headfirst into the pond and swam downward. Streams of spiritual energy rose in the water, cascading in five-colored splendor — this was a truly exceptional place for cultivation.
Ye Fan could not help but marvel. That ancient demon emperor, beyond all ordinary being — two hundred million years ago, he could not yet have been an emperor, and yet he had left behind such imperishable traces.
“Hmm — inscriptions!”
Ye Fan was startled. On a green stone at the bottom of the pond, he spotted a line of writing — not ancient characters, not divine script, but the writing of Earth.
“Pang Bo was here.”
Seeing these words, Ye Fan’s expression turned strange. Then his heart lurched violently, and his face flooded with wild joy. The sheer tackiness of it, the tone, the handwriting — it all pointed unmistakably to one person: Pang Bo!
“He really did pass through here!” Ye Fan could barely contain his excitement.
There was no doubt — this inscription confirmed his speculation. The Green Emperor had passed through this place; Pang Bo had walked through this very spot. This was one stop along the ancient starry path.
I’ll need to be more thorough about this — searching for their traces. Perhaps some of them haven’t even left yet, he thought to himself.
There were no treasured artifacts at the bottom of the pond. Ye Fan burst through the surface and continued toward the next ruin, following the legends surrounding Wan Qing.
“Hey — the Cao Family is here! They’ve posted a sky-high bounty. Anyone who can provide information, anyone who can capture that ascetic cultivator, will be richly rewarded!”
This news swept through like a gale, sending all directions into motion. Everyone on Celestial Feather Star took great interest.
The Cao Family had come back, and this time their fleet of warships roared like an overcast sky of iron, descending on this planet with murderous intent.
Ye Fan watched from a distance. A dense formation of silver warships stretched like a forest of steel, so tightly packed as far as the eye could see. Three mother warships alone had come — all for a single person. To mobilize in this fashion was truly staggering.
“They think rather highly of me,” Ye Fan thought with a mixture of surprise. He understood that this was likely a great crisis.
The Cao Family descended on Celestial Feather Star with tremendous momentum. In the half month that followed, they struck in every direction searching for his trail — yet came up empty again and again.
“Could he have already left?” the Cao Family members wondered with suspicion.
Cao Lin frowned, and across her seductive, beautiful face a look of deliberation appeared. Then with great certainty she said: “When we retreated last time, I had people activate the power of the cosmic network to monitor this star domain. Any appearance of a star gate would be detected. As for flying directly out of the domain — that would be even more impossible to conceal. I can say with confidence: he has not left this ancient star.”
“Increase the bounty,” a middle-aged man said.
Not long after, Celestial Feather Star erupted in an uproar. The Cao Family was willing to offer, for a single ascetic cultivator, one of the supplementary divine materials used in refining the strongest physique evolutionary fluid.
“Truly flush with resources. Few major powers can compare. Is this a matter of pride — purely to vent some frustration?”
“What do you know? I heard that ascetic cultivator has the Undying Golden Body. Even ten-plus generations diluted, it’s still extraordinary — golden divine blood can be extracted from him, worth a fortune. With the Cao Family’s all-reaching methods, it could certainly be put to tremendous use. It’s absolutely worth it.”
People whispered among themselves, stirring up a roaring wave of commotion.
“Excellent — the Cao Family is willing to bleed. I’m happy to oblige and collect that bounty,” Qi Yun said coldly, a string of cold laughs ringing from his divine island.
Not far away, in a quiet bamboo grove, his most beloved youngest son was recuperating from his injuries — bones broken throughout more than half his body, his vital energy gravely depleted — which left Qi Yun furious and incensed.
“You’re a wandering cultivator who dares run wild on Celestial Feather Star? I’ll make you regret ever coming into this world!” Qi Yun swore viciously.
He ordered someone to retrieve a Dao secret chart from the Ancient Saint Mecha vault and studied it carefully for a long while. This was the schematic of runes used to construct these war machines — containing tremendous secrets within.
“The mecha of our clan is not so easily stolen. Now, analyze it carefully. I want him to explode along with that war machine!”
A group of elders buried themselves in the chart of runes, examining them closely, as Dao runes flickered and pulsed — conducting test after test in repeated experiments — working to decode the ancient sage’s diagram.
Qi Meng arrived, graceful and willowy. “Ninth Uncle, what are you doing? Great-uncle told me to let you know not to act recklessly. Ye Fan saved our lives. If you make a move at a time like this, outsiders will look down on us — they’ll say we repaid kindness with malice.”
“My dear niece, wherever did you get that idea? Rest assured — your uncle is not that sort of person.” Qi Yun smiled warmly, seeing Qi Meng off.
Inside Heaven’s Court, the Brahma Clan received word of the Cao Family’s large-scale mobilization. Brahma Xian’s elegant brows knitted together. “This is not looking good. If he’s captured, won’t the Undying Golden Body slip through our fingers again?”
“Hmm — we could try a different approach and draw him here. Do you all remember the ascetic cultivators who appeared several years ago? I keep feeling they come from the same place…” Brahma Tian spoke in an eerie, teasing tone, his head of flame-red hair blazing brilliantly.
“Indeed — there’s likely a deep connection!” Brahma Clan senior figure Brahma Zhou’s eyes lit up. He shot to his feet.
Back on Celestial Feather Star, on a Qi Family divine island, Qi Yun’s cold laughs rang out, his gaze sinister and piercing, fixed on a certain direction. “Make the Ancient Saint Mecha detonate. If that boy is shattered to pieces, we’ll go extract his golden divine blood. If that fails, it will at least expose his location — we can sell him to the Cao Family and claim the divine mineral bounty.”
Either way, he would not be the loser — this time there would be a tremendous gain. The group set out in full numbers toward a stretch of wilderness.
“He should be deep within those mountain ranges. Prepare to activate — make Qi Meng’s Ancient Saint war machine destabilize and collapse. Detonate that so-called undying physique for me!”
Qi Yun’s expression was ruthless and vicious. He was willing to sacrifice a sacred weapon to inflict grievous damage on Ye Fan, rending his physical body apart.
Deep within the mountain range, Ye Fan’s heart and mind grew restless. He had the constant feeling that something was about to happen — as though great disaster loomed over him. This was the instinctive premonition that came with cultivation reaching a certain level. After ascending to the eighth level of Dao-Severing, this divine intuition had grown increasingly exceptional.
Something’s wrong. What exactly is it? Ye Fan swept his powerful divine sense across all eight directions, then turned it inward to examine his own body — pure, like flawless seven-colored divine glass — keeping the Green Copper Cauldron at hand as a precaution.
“It’s… this Ancient Saint Mecha!” Finally, his expression changed. At the very last moment, the war machine stirred — and in an instant, it blazed with blinding radiance. It was about to explode.
Ye Fan’s spirit was violently shaken. He swiftly summoned it and then drove it forcefully into the Green Copper Cauldron — cutting off all exchange of qi with the outside world.
The Green Copper Cauldron had endured for ten thousand ages. Though worn and cracked, no force of the mortal world could destroy it. It could suppress even Ancient Saint-level weapons.
The pale-blue radiance blazed brilliantly, yet the mecha could never be detonated. Ye Fan studied it closely, spotted the flaw, smiled coldly, and erased that destructive brand mark — resolving the crisis.
“That was dangerously close. This is a sacred weapon. If it had truly shattered and burned within my body, I could never have withstood it. Even if I survived, I’d have been crippled. What a ruthless heart!” Ye Fan thought, shaken by lingering fear.
“The boy’s life is remarkably tenacious — the Ancient Saint war machine didn’t explode. What technique did he use to survive that?” From a distance, Qi Yun was filled with uncertainty, his expression dark and troubled.
Then he broke into a sinister smile, immediately contacting the Cao Family and telling them that Ye Fan was here.
The speed of a Cao Family mother warship — it was not long before one appeared, completely sealing off the entire mountain range. Every last bit of their most devastating firepower converged forward.